Waikiki Natatorium’s memorable day-ahead Memorial Day observance

Although some 40,000 are expected to gather later today for the Lantern Floating Hawai’i ceremony (featured in my last Aloha Friday column and shown live online starting at 9:30 p.m. Pacific), the much smaller Memorial Day ceremony held yesterday at the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium was no less multicultural, nor less meaningful to its participants, according to observers and the organizers, Friends of the Waikiki Natatorium.

Among the speakers honoring the nation’s fallen servicemen and servicewomen were Lt. Gen Duane D. Thiessen, commander of the U.S. Marines in the Pacific, and 442nd Regimental Combat Team veteran Ron Oba, who said,”Memorial Day is not only a holiday, but is a day when we respect all our good friends, especially veterans who gave their all and died to preserve the liberty and freedom of Americans.” Rodney Cazimero and the Prince Kūhio Civic Club Chorale provided Hawaiian music, while Kanoe Cazimero and young dancers with Hula Hālau Ohana performed hula. A Navy chaplain and Marine color guard, rifle squad and bugler also participated in the Sunday morning service under bright blue skies.

The Friends are hopeful that Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle will be willing to reverse the previous administration’s plan to demolish the closed natatorium, a World War I memorial, once a draft environmental impact statement is released. For more photos of the event, see the Friends’ Flickr stream.

Mahalo to my family and friends serving their country today, along with many thousands more in the armed forces, and to all those fallen warriors who sacrificed their lives in service of a higher cause. Aloha.

The flag of Hawai’i and the colors of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team — the highly decorated World War II infantry unit of Japanese Americans — fly together at the Waikiki Natatorium, a World War I memorial.